Winter Day: Arbor Day at Honey Badger

Winter Day: Honey Badger

by Armando Ortiz

We sat there on the benches recalling,

Arbor Day in Ann Arbor, like it was yesterday.

Precambrian weather and frozen plains,

Hanukkah aligning with the stars, and

Saturnalia directly following along.

Rompope warmed our hearts, and

hard-sauce calmed the cold, putting it at bay, though

frosty nights took over the long evening, with

Bullring hours that tackled our sleep.

Negligee dreams during those winter days gave way to lights

Rear-ended by morning glory rays of light.

Now mornings are warmed with cups of champurrado

soothing our bodies as the cool chill is pushed aside

and a new day is about to rise.

Thoughts and sketches

Thoughts and Sketches

by Armando Ortiz

1. Anger takes a hold of us all

words of hurt are like waterfall

that hurt you more than the gnaw

that is produced when to them a

truth whose door has been opened ajar.

2. If you are thrown into water infested with jellyfish how will you make it out?

How do you survive an onslaught of stings and make it to the surface, but then how are they removed?

How do you stop the trajectory of a bullet that has been released from the barrel of a shotgun?

3. When you smell a rat, you get out, and fast.

When things are not working out and words

do not match the reality then something must be wrong.

How does attitude affect the outcome in many instances?

How does one create characters that come to life?

4. Waves produce an image that

reminds me of when you slept.

Even sleep can be a pleasure

when peace takes hold of our senses.

5. Rolling hills of endless orange groves

sit idle under the early summer sun.

the citrus scent taps and opens memories

when our youth seemed to last forever.

6. He would make paper airplanes

and from the second floor of the school building

would launch them out and see the planes

slowly sing and glide towards the roof of the cafeteria.

7. Corn shoots emerge from the ground

nourished by the volcanic soil of the land

and tended by dark hands that were dipped

in buckets of light, making them cracked with bones exhausted.

A language sprouted from the earth and conquered by foreign language.

8. Silence in the eyes, and the mind

containing secret memories of things unseen

and told by the outside.

A vessel filled with thoughts and experiences.

The beauty of landscapes misinterpreted and lost in the

soul of a young child replaced with modern words

and linear worlds.

9. Rats devour the spirit

and gnaw on the soul.

Rodents run around hallways

searching for prey.

10. Exponential experiences end up expanding

our elemental minds.

Intention transfers over to the over.

11. The imprint of out mother

appears through the air

a thin veil cover her hair,

revealing her pink lips.

12. truth is released through the final exhale of life.

13. Turtle island is where we live

and with every war the shell gets

brittle.

13. Natural and man-made

artifacts alone are just objects.

We imbued things with the energies

that radiate from within.

the human condition,

hard to contain and impossible to

Decipher.